Tuesday 22 March 2011

Sedevacantism

Sede Vacantism brings The two Witnesses into the World August 29th - Saint John the Baptist, Last of the Major Prophets And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Eliseus the Prophet; and not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian. St. Lk. 4:23-30 Our Lord was demonstrating why those who lack faith seldom see signs and miracles, as He continues, an evil and adulterous generation seeketh a sign: and a sign shall not be given it, but the sign of Jonas the Prophet. St. Matt. 12:39. A prelude to our times as this generation, too, demands signs from God's witnesses preceding the Second Coming of Christ. After Christ are Prophets still needed? NO; witnesses to their prophecies, yes. When we think of prophecy, we think of the foretelling of things to come, but there is more to it, Prophets are also messengers of God. The outstanding Prophet is Jesus Christ-He is God. He proclaims that He is our salvation. In Him the message and the Prophet are one. The whole Church, the assembly of those incorporated into Christ, takes over His role to continue to witness to His prophecy. Prophets always speak with reference to salvation and Messianic times. They foretell or herald the coming of the messianic kingdom. Through faith and the Sacraments we are living in the glorious messianic times, and we witness to them by our way of life. 1. As St. John the Baptist stated, "He must grow, and I must disappear." St. Jn. 3:30. Once Christ established the Papacy, the Popes became the number one High Priest, Prophet of Prophets and Doctor of Doctors. This means there is no human placed above the Pope. One must never forget that prior to being Pope, and in order to be Pope, he must first of all be a believer, one who himself has the faith. As a result of this the Pope adheres to the teaching of all his predecessors. He is taught by them. 2. The Church teaches public revelation is contained either in the Bible or in the deposit of the Apostolic Tradition. After the death of the last Apostle there could be no addition to public revelation. Whenever the majority of God's people become sinful, God sends us His punishments. Both fonts of public revelation, Scripture and tradition, have been given to the Church; only the Church can authentically interpret the Bible; only the Church can authoritatively declare the content of the Apostolic tradition; but the Church does not receive new revelations, it guards, explains and makes explicit for the faithful the content of the revelations made to the Apostles. Revealed truths proposed by the Church are believed by Catholics with divine faith i. e., because of the authority of God who has revealed them. Anything of Faith is Old not New. To deny a revealed truth proposed for our belief by the Church is heresy. 3. As long as we have a true Pope in the world there can not be any major prophets and as for the two witnesses which come into the world during the Great Apostasy, (Schism) we will be without a true Pope as the Antichrists will control the apostate church while the faithful seek refuge in the wilderness. Apoc. 12. Elias and Enoch do not come back but are represented by the current two witnesses. In Christ's time we had two witnesses: St. John the Baptist, who represented Elias 4, and Jesus who represented Enoch. Enoch was married and represents the married state in the mystical body of Christ. Christ also represents the married state as the Groom of His Church. Isaias 7:15. Elias and St. John the Baptist represents the single or chaste state. It's my understanding of why we say the Confiteor twice, each time at Mass, as it is said once for the married state and once for the single state. Or you could apply it as well to saying the Confiteor once for Enoch and the other for Elias. The two witnesses in the end times cannot be of the Religious simply because Enoch was married and his replacement would represent the married state. Also, both witnesses would have to be free of any control of the religious nature, as they would be speaking in the place of the Pope. They will explain the status of Church, prepare the faithful for the battle of Armageddon (the last battle), the great chastisement (fire from heaven), and the Second Coming of Christ. By faith Enoch was taken up lest he should see death; and he was not found because God took him up-for before he was taken up he had testimony that pleased God and without faith it is impossible to please God. For he who comes to God must believe that God exists and is a rewarder to those who seek him. Heb. 11:5. Notes: 1. St. Andrew Bible Missal 1962 2. . Fortes in Fide.# 1, Father Noel Barbara 3. . Catholic Encyclopedia 4. . Ott, Fund. of Catholic Dogma, pg.487 Saint Quote: A man cannot receive any thing, unless it be given him from heaven. You yourselves do bear me witness, that I said, I am not Christ, but that I am sent before him. He that hath the bride, is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, who standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth with joy because of the bridegroom's voice. This my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease. -Saint John the Baptist in John 3:26-30 Bible Quote: 11. He that is the greatest among you shall be your servant. 12. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled: and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. (Matthew 23:11-12) <><><><> O glorious Saint John the Baptist, greatest prophet among those born of woman, although thou wast sanctified in thy mother's womb and didst lead a most innocent life, nevertheless it was thy will to retire into the wilderness, there to devote thyself to the practice of austerity and penance; obtain for us of thy Lord the grace to be wholly detached, at least in our hearts, from earthly goods, and to practice Christian mortification with interior recollection and with the spirit of holy prayer. Our Father... Hail Mary... Glory be... O most zealous Apostle, who, without working any miracle on others, but solely by the example of thy like of penance and the power of thy word, didst draw after thee the multitudes, in order to dispose them to receive the Messiah worthily and to listen to His heavenly doctrine; grant that it may be given to us, by means of the example of a holy life and the exercise of every good work, to bring many souls to God, but above all those souls that are enveloped in the darkness of error and ignorance and are led astray by vice. Our Father... Hail Mary... Glory be... O Martyr invincible, who, for the honor of God and the salvation of souls, didst with firmness and constancy withstand the impiety of Herod even at the cost of thine own life, and didst rebuke him openly for his wicked and dissolute life; by thy prayers obtain for us a heart, brave and generous, in order that we may overcome all human respect and openly profess our faith in loyal obedience to the teachings of Jesus Christ, our divine Master. Our Father... Hail Mary... Glory be... V. Pray for us, Saint John the Baptist, R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Let us pray. O God, who hast made this day to be honorable in our eyes by the commemoration of blessed John, grant unto Thy people the grace of spiritual joy, and direct the minds of all Thy faithful into the way of everlasting salvation. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. Imprimatur: + Francis Spellman, Archbishop of New York, May 30, 1951.

Friday 11 March 2011

Sede Vacante and Sede Vacantism--Anti Popes and Anti Christs

Explaining Sede Vacante and Sede Vacantism--Anti Popes & AntiChrists The definition of Sede Vacante is not defined correctly. It is an adopted word to explain an empty chair as a result of a death or resignation of a pope. The problem with this definition alludes to the state of the church to be headless. Our Lord said "Thou art Peter . . . . and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it." This implies that no matter what happens to the pope there will always be someone to act in the place of the pope who will run the church until another pope is elected. Hence we have the term "perpetual successors". The Church has always taught that St. Peter's successors to be in an unending, an unbroken chain. So up until the Vatican II Council, there has never been a break in the line of successors (Vatican Council I). What I wish to state is up until the Vatican II Council, the proper understanding of Sede Vacante is really Sede Transition for, as I pointed out, the Church is never without its delegated authority. Sede Vacantism explained. As many of you know the results of the Vatican II Council propagated by Paul VI caused a split in the Catholic Church, the split was caused by what appeared to be a legally elected pope? Paul VI instituted into Church teaching (ex-cathedra to the whole church) decrees which have been previously condemned by other dogmatic councils. As a result of this action Sede Vacantism was perpetuated among many of the traditionalists, while the other groups continued to hope for a turn-around. Being a Sede Vacante in this present form cannot be related to its past meaning because in the past, again, the church maintained its formal jurisdictional authority. Today Sede Vacantists do not have formal jurisdictional authority, even if, to explain this dilemma, they tried to explain it away by saying that we are going through just another interregnum. If you accept this position then who's in charge of the Church and why are they not trying to elect a true pope? An interregnum means a break between popes; but these Sede Vacantists have no jurisdictional way to elect one -- or if they did, why haven't they? The problem here is unless they can find a way to elect a pope, the line of successors (popes) has been broken in violation of Church teaching. I will cover this problem in the next two subjects. Anti-Popes and AntiChrists These are two different meanings. To begin with an antipope is someone who is opposed to another legally elected pope. Now, as many of you know we have had plenty of antipopes all through the centuries. You will find however, that, an antipope can still be a Catholic and continues to belong to the church. As a matter of fact the first antipope actually became a Saint, St. Hippolytus of Rome (217-235 AD). During the western schism, which really wasn't a schism, we had three popes for about thirty years. To begin with this was more about politics and not matters of faith. So we had two antipopes and one true pope at this time. Once the division came to an end all the participants remained in the church, therefore, you could not call these antipopes 'AntiChrists.' Defining Anti Christ The true definition of an AntiChrist is a God against God or someone in place of God and in our case, it's someone in the place of Christ. St. John the Apostle is the only one to use the word AntiChrist.The first true AntiChrist that St. John is referring to in the Apocalypse was the High Priest Caiphas who sat in the chair of Moses and had Christ killed (The Synagogue of Satan). In the future the chair will become the chair of Peter of whom the AntiChrists will take over and be accepted as true Popes by most of the world.(1). St. Paul referred to him as the 'man of sin' or the 'son of perdition.' The generic term for AntiChrist can be used for any sinner but mostly those with authority who go against Christ. The AntiChrist spoken of in the Great Apostasy (schism) or in the end times are specific individuals generally related as 'each' or as 'one person each.' Our Lord makes it very clear in speaking about the 'abomination of desolation' . . . "for there shall arise false Christs and false prophets [many] in so much as to deceive the elect." Matt 24:24 My friends, traditionalists are the elect. Our Lord makes it clear that many of these AntiChrists in the end times will be followed by the elect. What this means is, those who remain as Sede Vacantists will be saved and those who compromise with these AntiChrist popes will be lost. So you have it my friends of the truth. The line of successors has been broken without any acceptable way to mend it. According to most Doctors of the Church the Great Apostasy lasts about 40 to 50 years and we are in the 42 year which concludes with Our Lords Return. (1) The Book of Destiny, Fr. Herman Kramer. Pg. 321 Grace be with you, In Christ, Joseph

Wednesday 9 March 2011

Pope St Pius V

Pope Saint Pius V (1566-1572) Canonized 1712 by Pope Clement XI Antonio Michaele Ghislieri (1504-1572) Cardinal Ghislieri was no respecter of persons. He prosecuted eight French bishops for heresy. Moreover, he did not hesitate to oppose even Pope Pius IV to his face when the pope wished to elevate a thirteen-year-old member of the Medici family to the Sacred College of Cardinals. He rebuked the pope again when he wished to subsidize his nephew out of the papal treasury. After his election as pope, Pius V vigorously undertook the task of translating the work of the dogmatic Council of Trent from theory into practice. In 1567 he declared St. Thomas Aquinas a Doctor of the Church and directed that an edition of his works be prepared and printed in seventeen volumes. In sacred music, he was the patron of arguably the Church's finest polyphonic composer, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. In affairs of state, he courageously excommunicated Elizabeth I of England for her schism and savage persecutions of Catholic laymen and priests, the English martyrs. The last great event of his pontificate was the victory at Lepanto of the greatly-outnumbered Catholic forces over the Mohammedan Turks, who threatened to overrun Europe. The saintly pope attributed this victory to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in recognition of which fact, he instituted a new Marian feast, Our Lady of Victory.